Playing Cards and Dino Gummies
by TheAmethystRiddle
Summary: Jane and Lisbon spend their evening cheating at cards and stealing poker chips. Episode tag for 5x14. Fluff.


"I win again!" It was late, the office empty and the sun going down behind the bullpen. Jane's claim that he would teach her how to be a better poker player had long since proved to be a ruse under whose guise he intended to take her for every gummy dino she owned. To both their surprise she had so far held her own against him, at least after his original two aces (which he still claimed were legitimate). The gummies spent their time in a steady flow back and forth across the table, and despite Jane's frequent gleeful outbursts his wins had so far only been marginal.

"You're pulling those out of your sleeves," Lisbon said as she lost the third hand in a row.

"I am doing no such thing," he replied, looking scandalized at the very thought, but Lisbon knew better than to believe him.

"If you don't start playing straight I will take drastic action." She gathered and shuffled the cards as she spoke, smirking at him despite herself.

"'Drastic action'?" he repeated, raising his eyebrows and shaking his head, daring her to do anything of the sort.

"Yes." And without another word she reached over the table, grabbed a dinosaur from his pile, and popped it in her mouth.

"Hey!" He reached after her, stopping just short of grabbing her face in an effort to wrest the candy away from her. "Give that back!"

"What, this old thing?" she asked, sticking her tongue out with the half-chewed gummy on it. He drew back with an expression of disgust.

"Yeah, never mind," he frowned. After a moment's contemplation he quickly snatched one of Lisbon's dinos and plopped it onto his pile. "You're only hurting yourself now," he said.

"At some point they're going to be all gone, and then what will you do?" she asked, moving lightning fast to grab another one away from him.

"Then I'll-" his hand shot out just as quickly to grab a gummy in response "- consider myself the victor."

"Please, as if. You weren't going to win this anyway." She dealt another round, paying careful attention to his hands in case of any cheating. Unfortunately he seemed to be on the level.

"While I admit you're more skilled than I'd anticipated, I'm still the better poker player and we both know it." As he looked at his cards he smirked in that way that made Lisbon want to smack him.

"Whatever," she said, unable to think of a more mature reply, and to her endless irritation he chuckled in response.

She was pleased to see his smile falter a bit as she won the next two rounds, claiming a fair share of his gummy dinosaurs in the process.

"See? When you win I don't accuse you of cheating." He pouted a bit as if actually put out by the fact that she didn't trust him.

"That's because I don't cheat."

"But you do eat other people's poker chips." Before she could react he had taken one of her dinos and eaten it, a pleased grin spreading across his face.

She went for his pile as he once again went for hers, the two of them scrambling to collect as many gummies as they could. By the end of it they had settled at opposite corners of the table, eyeing each other suspiciously. Playing cards littered the floor and their clothes were rather mussed from their struggle. After a long moment of silence Lisbon spoke up.

"I don't even want all these."

"Yeah, I want Thai."

"Whoever has the least gummy dinosaurs has to pay." Lisbon peeked at her hoard to make sure her statement was a good idea.

"Hold on, let's settle this reasonably-"

"What, with a game of poker? So you can cheat me? I don't think so."

"What if I promised not to cheat? I promise, look at me, Lisbon, I'm _promising_."

She threw a dinosaur at him and he deflected it with his hand, though he got out his phone anyway and dialed the number of their favorite takeout place.

"Just this once," he said, holding up a finger to her. "Just this once I'll let you win."

"Oh, you'll _let_ me win, okay. Well, you don't need to _let_ me win, I can win just fine on my own," she said, and chucked another dinosaur at him.

The sun set on the world outside as they pulled together the cards for another game.


End file.
